Ilika plc (LON:IKA) is the topic of conversation when Baden Hill’s Partner and Equity Specialist Dr Tom McColm caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview.
Q1: We’ve just seen that Ilika has published final results which were looking pretty good, where do you see the company’s first OEM licencing deal coming from?
A1: Yes, it’s a good question, it’s the thing that everyone’s looking for. I actually think it’ll be from one of the more specialised small scale Stereax applications and even though it was their latest and most recent product launch, the M50, this very very small millimetre scale device.
I think it will come for that product in the medical device application area because it’s such a high value add and there isn’t really any other batteries that can perform those sort of functions.
So, if I was a betting man, I’d say it’ll be an M50 application and what it definitely won’t be will be the big goliath cells in EV, I think that’s still a long way off.
Q2: So, what should investors be looking out for news flow wise over the next 12 months?
A2: Obviously, the one that I mentioned earlier, is we’re looking for this first big OEM licencing deal, it does seem like they’re getting closer and closer in a number of areas so that one will be a bit of a game changer.
Also, an important area is the relationship that they have with Semefab on the manufacturing side, information on that will be interesting, how that’s going, how that scale-up’s going because without that, the whole business model won’t work.
So, big first OEM licencing deal and good progress on the manufacturing partnership with Semefab.
Q3: Finally, what’s your view on the overall global battery market going forward?
A3: I think it’s just going to absolutely going to get massive. There’s two huge global megatrends at the moment, you’ve got the decarbonisation of energy and you’ve got the electrification of transport, both of those require vast amounts of storage.
Alongside that, you’ve still got the usual markets, consumer electronics markets, mobile phones etc. so I think there’s going to be a huge growth in the volume of batteries produced over the next 10/20 years.
